"We only have one chance!" Uryū Ishida took a deep breath. "The Hōgyoku is on Aizen right now. Muten possessed it for a long time, so he can use the Hell's Eye to pinpoint its location. Once he makes contact with Aizen, his Reiatsu Burst will alert us."
"Uryū..." Ichigo Kurosaki looked worried. "Are you sure this is really going to work?"
"Don't worry." Uryū Ishida patted Yasutora Sado on the shoulder. "Sado says he can handle carrying you. Trust him. He's used to this."
Yasutora Sado was half-kneeling on the ground, with Ichigo Kurosaki, who was gripping Zangetsu, resting on his right shoulder. He nodded and gave a quiet, "Mm."
"That's not exactly what I'm worried about... though I'm a little worried about that too." Ichigo Kurosaki lifted his gaze toward the distance. "I mean, will our attack actually do anything?"
"That... I don't know either," Uryū Ishida answered honestly. "But this is the only way we can guarantee a hit on Aizen, and it's also the only way for us to unleash our maximum attack power."
Ichigo Kurosaki stopped hesitating. "Then let's do it!"
The Quincy Cross on Uryū Ishida's wrist floated upward. He pressed it against Yasutora Sado's back, and specks of light gathered around them, rapidly clustering into Reishi.
Armor of contrasting colors appeared over both of Yasutora Sado's arms. On the shield over his right arm, black with red markings, the twisted patterns shifted and grew into the shape of a longbow.
Ichigo Kurosaki gripped Zangetsu tightly with both hands and aimed the blade's tip forward.
The hazy Reishi longbow enveloping Yasutora Sado gradually solidified. Ichigo Kurosaki, carried on Yasutora Sado's shoulder, was wrapped in the Reiryoku he released, like an arrow ready to be fired.
Back during the battle in Hueco Mundo, Uryū Ishida had once used Yasutora Sado's power to condense Reishi arrows.
Now, he and Yasutora Sado were forming a Reishi longbow together, using Ichigo Kurosaki's power as the arrow. Uryū Ishida was responsible for regulating the Reiryoku and Reishi, ensuring the three of them could combine their strength into a single coordinated attack instead of clashing with one another.
Reishi roared through the air, and light blazed. Controlling such immense power left Uryū Ishida struggling to breathe. "Good. Hold it right there and wait for Muten's signal."
Unlike Shinigami, who release bursts of Reiatsu, Quincy combat centered on gathering Reishi and gave off very little Reiatsu.
On top of that, they were far enough away, and after several intense battles, the Reiatsu in the area was already in chaos. Even with the commotion the three of them were causing, they did not need to worry about Sōsuke Aizen noticing them.
"Is this enough?" Ichigo Kurosaki asked. "I feel like... it can still be stronger."
"You idiot!" Uryū Ishida snapped. "This is already dangerous. If we gather any more Reishi and force that much power through your body, you'll lose your Quincy powers completely!"
"What about you two?"
"Sado and I aren't having the power pass directly through us like you are... Wait!" Uryū Ishida clicked his tongue. "You can't..."
Ichigo Kurosaki laughed. "You figured it out, huh? If I'm the only one who'll lose my powers, then keep increasing it!"
"You..."
"Uryū, if we can't defeat Aizen, what's the point of keeping my Quincy powers?"
"..." Uryū Ishida's breath caught. "Sado, say something!"
"I... will protect Ichigo," Yasutora Sado said firmly. "Whether he has Quincy powers or not."
"Hmph... Do whatever you want." Uryū Ishida snorted. Dense strands of Reishi intertwined, turning into white bandages that bound the three of them together as even more Reishi gathered.
Ransōtengai was originally a top-tier combat spirit technique used to manipulate a severely injured body like a puppet and maintain fighting capability. Now, Uryū Ishida used it to further fine-tune the flow of Reiryoku through Ichigo Kurosaki and Yasutora Sado.
An even greater mass of Reishi gathered behind the three of them, forming an ethereal single wing that drew in still more Reishi.
Ichigo Kurosaki let out a muffled groan, and Zangetsu trembled in his hand.
"I'm fine!" The moment Uryū Ishida slowed the gathering of Reishi, Ichigo Kurosaki urged him on. "Keep going!"
Branch-like patterns of light shone across Ichigo Kurosaki's body, and his trembling form steadied again.
Under the torrent of Reishi, Ichigo Kurosaki could feel its flow through his blood vessels more clearly than ever.
No...
As the son of a doctor, Ichigo Kurosaki quickly realized that the Reishi inside him was flowing through his veins.
What if... it flowed through his arteries instead?
Almost the instant that thought occurred to him, the light patterns on his body faded.
The Reishi poured into his arteries, rushing through them at a speed far beyond before.
A storm of Reishi roared to life, snapping the layers of bandages wrapped around the three of them one after another.
Before Uryū Ishida could ask what Ichigo Kurosaki had done, he sensed Muten Natsu's Reiatsu soaring into the sky.
There was no time to think. Uryū Ishida released the power he could no longer control. "Fly!"
A deep blue radiance shot from Zangetsu in Ichigo Kurosaki's hands, stretching to the limits of sight in an instant.
The raging torrent of Reishi crossed the vast distance and arrived behind Sōsuke Aizen in a flash.
An eerie hum rang out, and a pale green glow suddenly bloomed behind Sōsuke Aizen.
Layers of hexagonal translucent shields nested inside one another, packed so densely that their number could not be determined.
"A Quincy? Not a bad attack, but your aim is wrong." Sōsuke Aizen did not even turn his head. "The back of the neck is the greatest blind spot of any living creature. Did you really think I would leave it undefended?"
Spirit Ink spilled from Muten Natsu, scattering through the air and turning into dense characters that encircled Sōsuke Aizen. "Bakudō #1: Sai!"
Layers of bindings fell over Sōsuke Aizen, but all they drew from him was a soft chuckle. "To use Kidō in such a way... Muten Natsu, I was right about you after all. You are..."
A cold gleam descended.
Sōsuke Aizen heard faint cracking sounds and turned to look behind him. The million-layer Reiatsu shield he had developed with the Hōgyoku was shattering.
The cause was Ichigo Kurosaki's Zangetsu.
The torrent of Reishi just now had only served to locate him while opening a Reishi pathway for Zangetsu.
The radiance on Zangetsu ground against the shield and gradually faded, but the shield still remained.
Then, in the next instant, a crimson light suddenly burst from the blade and shattered the remaining shield completely.
"This power..." The aftershock struck Sōsuke Aizen's head, forcing him to lower it slightly. "Ichigo Kurosaki..."
"The charge... was finished long ago." Muten Natsu shifted his body slightly. Myōki sank into his left palm, and layered armor appeared over his left arm. The armor that had once been bone-white was now completely black, as though dyed in ink. "Thanks to you opening the Gates of Hell, I was able to obtain a Spirit Weapon capable of storing power."
Deep blackness covered the sky and blotted out the sun. Only a single line of cold light shone, filling everyone's field of vision.
Like the first ray of dawn at the birth of the world, the bright light against the darkness carried a strange, breathtaking beauty.
Blood left Sōsuke Aizen's body, scattering through the air as the darkness faded, only to be evaporated by the lingering blade pressure.
"Well done, [Muten Natsu]." Sōsuke Aizen pulled back and placed one hand on his chest. A horrific wound stretched from his left shoulder all the way to his right waist, and through the torn flesh, the smooth break of his ribs could faintly be seen. "Under your stimulus..."
Sōsuke Aizen lowered the hand covering his chest, revealing the Hōgyoku embedded there beneath his torn clothes. "The Hōgyoku's defensive instinct to protect its master has fully activated, allowing it to fuse with my body even faster."
Black cross-shaped cracks appeared around the Hōgyoku embedded in Sōsuke Aizen's chest. From those cracks, fine fissures branched out and spread across his entire upper body, pulling together the wound Muten Natsu had inflicted.
As the wound healed, the tiny fissures vanished as well.
Ink-like markings appeared on the bone-white arm armor over Muten Natsu's left arm, absorbing Reishi and storing power.
"You said just now that it was thanks to me opening the Gates of Hell... No, it was thanks to you closing the Gates of Hell." Sōsuke Aizen lightly tapped the Hōgyoku on his chest. "Without you, the Hōgyoku would never have fused with me this quickly."
Muten Natsu did not mind talking with Sōsuke Aizen a while longer. The more time passed, the more people Retsu Unohana, Orihime Inoue, and Rukia Kuchiki could save, and the more power he himself could store. "Are you trying to say everything was part of your plan?"
"Of course not. The Hōgyoku going out of control was outside my plan. It had spent too long inside you being burned by the Hell Flames. After I released its seal, I merely showed a slight interest in Hell, and the Hōgyoku began to stir. It escaped my control and made it impossible for me to fuse with it," Sōsuke Aizen explained unhurriedly. "Fortunately, you brought the plan back on track. After the Arrancar attacked the World of the Living one after another, you, who like to solve problems once and for all, were bound to break into Hueco Mundo. And if you went to Hueco Mundo, Orihime Inoue would naturally go as well."
"Orihime...?"
"You still haven't realized it? Her power is not Time Regression or Space Regression. It is... the Rejection of Phenomena," Sōsuke Aizen continued. "To limit, reject, and negate every phenomenon that has occurred to the target, returning it to the state before anything happened. That is an ability far beyond Time Regression and Space Regression, one that encroaches on the realm of God."
"So you repeatedly sent Arrancar to the World of the Living to force us into Hueco Mundo. In Hueco Mundo, you used the Hōgyoku to open the Gates of Hell and give the Espada power, making us do everything we could to close those gates. Then you used Orihime's power to restore the Hōgyoku to a state where it could fuse with you, and had Zommari bring it to you." Muten Natsu pieced it together. "Is that right?"
Sōsuke Aizen looked as if he were admiring his own work. "Muten, you've matured. The old you would already be furious at finding yourself inside someone else's plan."
"I envy your ability to lay plans and carry them out. To me, everything is uncertain. The life I thought would continue forever always changes beyond recognition in an instant." Muten Natsu looked at Myōki in his hand. "That's why I don't make plans, and I don't trust them. Not mine, and not yours."
"Many things happen by chance, but as long as you grasp the fixed points within them, even events outside the plan can be folded back into it, guiding everything toward an inevitable conclusion." Sōsuke Aizen extended a hand. Muten Natsu's reflection in his eyes looked like a toy resting in his palm. "The accidents you believe shattered your life were all part of my plan. Everything led you to me and catalyzed the Hōgyoku's further fusion with my body."
Muten Natsu raised his eyes. "You can keep saying that forever, but if you think it will shake me, you're dead wrong."
"Shake you? No. It makes you think. The weaker a being is, the more easily they accept the fragile happiness they have in the present. When you feel joy and happiness, you sink into them and enjoy that beauty. Just as you depended on Rukia Kuchiki, on Retsu Unohana, and on Orihime Inoue." Sōsuke Aizen spoke calmly, his indifferent voice like a cold scalpel slowly cutting open Muten Natsu's heart. "That lonely heart of yours is satisfied by even the smallest bit of companionship and care. And for that insignificant satisfaction, you dare not do anything. You fear that any rash action of yours might create another variable. You immersed yourself in it, escaped loneliness, and gave up thinking."
"So..." Muten Natsu's hand trembled slightly around his blade, then stilled. "That's why you want to destroy everything I have?"
"The weak can easily accept beauty. They do not question why they are able to gain happiness and joy. They simply enjoy it blindly. But the weak cannot accept suffering. They resist it. Only when they encounter suffering do they think about why they must endure it, search for a solution, and grow through that process of thought." Sōsuke Aizen answered Muten Natsu's questions just as he once had at Shin'ō Academy. "Think carefully, Muten Natsu. When have you thought the most? When you were enjoying life... or when you were enduring suffering?"
Muten Natsu tightened his grip on Myōki and said nothing.
"Don't mistake it for being shaken. Think more. Think carefully." Sōsuke Aizen did not need Muten Natsu's answer. "Everything you have suffered is merely what has always happened in Soul Society. You only felt the pain because it happened to you. Slaughtering Central 46, resisting the nobility, opposing unjust rulings... You and I have always been doing the same things. But you were immersed in the beauty around you and trapped by your own suffering, so you came to stand against me."
Muten Natsu spoke. "You want to change Soul Society?"
"I knew you would understand." Sōsuke Aizen gave a pleased smile. "You and I both possess abilities that transcend the existing rules of this world."
"No." Muten Natsu's eyes shone brightly. "I've felt that something was wrong for a while now, and I finally understand."